This invention relates to a spectrometer and in particular to a microwave spectrometer.
Microwave spectroscopy is known to measure changes in rotational energy of substances in the vapour state, it being possible to make measurements of each spectral line with such precision (at least to one part in 100,000 in the measurement of line frequencies) that accurate measurements of only a small number of lines (say 3 or 4) provides a unique fingerprint not shared by any other known chemical compound. The method of microwave spectroscopy therefore differs from virtually any other known analytical method in its uniqueness of identification.
The standard method of microwave spectroscopy has hitherto been limited to a small number of rather simple chemical compounds because the compound has had to be vaporized in order to study it whereas the great majority of chemicals of interest to business commerce, etc., such as pharmaceutical preparations, drugs etc., are involatile and normally thought of as not capable of being vaporized.